Year: 2016

Family-friendly activities, dining, shopping make Museum ideal spot for holiday fun

Milwaukee Art Museum celebrates the season with exciting events and extended hours in December

Family-friendly activities, dining, shopping make Museum ideal spot for holiday fun

Milwaukee, Wis. — The Milwaukee Art Museum celebrates its most exciting holiday season yet, featuring new special exhibitions Nature and Opulence: The Art of Martin Johnson Heade and Paper Play: Kindergarten to Contemporary Art in the Kohl’s Art Generation Gallery, and festive holiday events. The Museum is the perfect place to bring friends, families and out-of-town guests.

On Dec. 4 families can take a break from the winter weather and immerse themselves in the Kohl’s Art Generation Family Sundays Tropical Holiday event.  Kids of all ages can also make art projects perfect to keep, or to give as a holiday gifts in the Kohl’s Art Generation Studio, which will be open for special winter break hours, December 26-30, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. (7 p.m. on Friday).

A decadent New Year’s Eve Dinner Dec. 31 is destined to become an annual tradition. And for savvy holiday shoppers, the Museum Store is Milwaukee’s source for artist-made, unique and locally sourced gifts, and offers in-store and online discounts through the month of December.

A full listing of events is below. For more information, visit www.mam.org or call 414/224-3200.

Holiday Shopping Events

Ornament Signing: Kelli Busch

Friday, Dec. 9, 11 a.m.–3 p.m.

Shoppers can meet local artist Kelli Busch who designed this year’s commemorative ornament exclusively for the Museum Store. She will personalize colorful cityscapes for a uniquely special gift and collectible. Museum admission is not required to shop.

Cyber Monday Online Shopping Special

Through Friday, Dec. 18

Beginning Cyber Monday through Dec. 18, everyone receives free shipping in the continental U.S. on online purchases over $25. Visit www.mam.org/store.

Member Double Discount Days

Fridays, Dec. 2, 9, 16, 23, 10 a.m.‒8 p.m.
Museum Members can shop for holiday décor and one-of-a-kind gifts in the Museum Store, online and in the exhibition store—with a 20% discount.

Tastings: East End Wine Bar

Friday, Dec. 9 and 16, 5–7 p.m.

Drop in and sample everything from beer to bourbon, chocolate to cheese.  Free with Museum admission.

Free Live Music in Windhover Hall

Bruce Anthony Holiday Concert

Saturday, Dec. 3, 12 p.m.

Festive Joy with Brioso

Saturday, Dec. 10, 1 p.m.

Pius XI Madrigal Ensemble Holiday Concert

Sunday, Dec. 11, 12:15 p.m.

Spring City Brass Quintet

Thursday, Dec. 15, 1 p.m.

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Note to editors: The Museum’s holiday schedule is as follows:

Christmas Eve, December 24 | Open, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.
Christmas Day, December 25 | Closed

Monday, December 26 | Open, 10 a.m.‒5 p.m.
New Year’s Eve, December 31 | Open, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
New Year’s Day, January 1| 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

 

Nature and Opulence: The Art of Martin Johnson Heade offers Milwaukee Art Museum visitors calm in the holiday storm

Masterpieces by one of the most important American artists of the 19th century convey warmth and sheer beauty

Milwaukee, Wis. – Nov. 1, 2016 – The Milwaukee Art Museum is excited to present Nature and Opulence: The Art of Martin Johnson Heade, on view from Nov. 18 through Feb. 26 in the Museum’s Bradley Family Gallery. Organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, this is the first major exhibition on the artist in nearly 20 years. Largely forgotten by scholars and collectors after his death, Heade was one of the most varied and inventive painters of the 19th century and is now recognized as one of the most important American artists of his generation.

Heade was the only major American painter of the time to devote equal attention to landscape, marine and still life subjects. He created evocative marsh scenes, powerful canvases of thunderstorms at sea, Victorian flower still lifes and small studies of South American hummingbirds accompanied by tropical orchids.

“We are honored to host these paintings by one of the 19th century’s most important American artists from the MFA Boston,” said Brandon Ruud, the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Abert Family Curator of American Art. “The warmth and sheer beauty of Heade’s lush landscapes and opulent still lifes make this exhibition one everyone can enjoy this holiday season.”

Nature and Opulence includes approximately 50 works and is arranged in the galleries thematically: Portraiture and Early Landscapes, Seascapes, Painting Light, Transition with Drawings, Orchids and Hummingbirds, and Interior Still Lifes.

The exhibition offers visitors the unique opportunity to view the full range of Heade’s career and his development as an artist, from early portraits and marine subjects to his mature Luminist landscapes and late magnolia still lifes.

Heade made multiple trips to the tropics in search of good subject material, including Brazil, Colombia, Jamaica, Nicaragua and Panama, and created paintings that are a unique combination of jewel-like birds and lush orchids—what he called his “Gems.”

These paintings, along with Heade’s later floral still lifes, in which magnolia blossoms lie on dark velvet or are arranged in ornate vases, scandalized Victorian audiences because of their obvious sexual undertones. Such shocking subjects eventually led to a decline in the artist’s reputation; collectors and curators revived his status as one of the 19th century’s greatest American painters after his death.

In addition to exploring the extraordinary breadth of Heade’s output, the exhibition includes paintings by his contemporaries, including rare masterpieces by Washington Allston, Albert Bierstadt and Fitz Henry Lane.

An audio guide is available featuring Brandon Ruud and Heade author and expert Karen Quinn, senior historian and curator of art and culture at the New York State Museum.

This exhibition was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Related Programs:

Opening Reception and Gallery Talk

Friday, Nov. 18, 2016, from 5:30-8 p.m.

With Heade author and expert Karen Quinn, senior historian and curator of art and culture at the New York State Museum.

Gallery Talks

Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017 at 1:30 p.m. and Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017 at 1:30 p.m.

With Brandon Ruud, Abert Family Curator of American Art.

Related Family Programs:

Family Guide

A free printed piece geared towards families, leads them through the exhibition, prompting them to make sketches and answer questions along the way.

Kohl’s Art Generation Family Sundays: Tropical Holiday

Dec. 4, 2016, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Families are invited to enjoy the colors and patterns, flora and fauna, of nature. Inspired by the paintings in Nature and Opulence: The Art of Martin Johnson Heade, kids can paint from live flowers and sculpt a hummingbird, while learning the names of plants and birds.

For additional January/February family programs related to the exhibition, visit www.mam.org.

About the Milwaukee Art Museum

Home to a rich collection of more than 30,000 works of art, the Milwaukee Art Museum is located on the shores of Lake Michigan. Its campus includes the Santiago Calatrava–designed Quadracci Pavilion, annually showcasing three feature exhibitions, and the Eero Saarinen–designed Milwaukee County War Memorial Center and David Kahler‒designed addition. The Museum recently reopened its Collection Galleries, debuting nearly 2,500 world-class works of art within dramatically transformed galleries and a new lakefront addition. This reimagined space also allows for the presentation of additional changing exhibitions.

Media Contacts:

Vicky Shokatz, 414-239- 0407

vshokatz@buzzmonkeyspr.com

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Milwaukee Art Museum chief curator to take director position at Florida museum

For immediate release:

Milwaukee, Wis.- October 14, 2016—The Milwaukee Art Museum announced today that its chief curator, Brady Roberts, is leaving to become the executive director/CEO of the Vero Beach Museum of Art in Vero Beach, Florida. Roberts came to the Museum in 2009. During his seven-year tenure, Roberts elevated the institution’s contemporary art program and oversaw the 2015 reinstallation of the Museum’s collections.

As chief curator at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Roberts organized several notable exhibition projects. In 2012, Roberts mounted an exhibition of the site-specific installations of New York–based artist Tara Donovan—an artist emerging as one of the most talented of her generation. In that same year, Roberts secured a major video work by the pioneering London-based artist Isaac Julien. Julien’s Expeditions trilogy—True North (2004), Fantôme Afrique (2005) and Western Union: Small Boats (2007)—was, for the first time, presented in its entirety, sequentially, at the Museum. In 2014, together with the Centre Pompidou, Roberts co-organized a major Wassily Kandinsky retrospective. The international partnership with the Paris museum, one of the major repositories of work by Kandinsky, allowed for a rich and comprehensive look at the career of one of the most important and revolutionary artists of the twentieth century.

Roberts played a key role in the Milwaukee Art Museum’s 2015 major reinstallation project, which culminated in a sweeping renovation of its two original buildings. In addition to leading the first major reinstallation of the Museum’s Collection Galleries, Roberts played a key role in the successful $34 million capital campaign for this project. He also successfully guided key acquisitions by Tara Donovan, Thomas Struth, Yinka Shonabare and David Schnell, among others.

“The Milwaukee Art Museum is grateful to Mr. Roberts for his significant contributions to the Museum’s curatorial program, ones that lay the foundation for the visionary work of the years ahead,” said Marcelle Polednik, PhD, Donna and Donald Baumgartner Director. “We wish him great success in his directorial debut at the Vero Beach Museum of Art.”

Roberts’ last day at the Museum is October 21.

About the Milwaukee Art Museum

Home to a rich collection of more than 30,000 works of art, the Milwaukee Art Museum is located on the shores of Lake Michigan. Its campus includes the Santiago Calatrava–designed Quadracci Pavilion, annually showcasing three feature exhibitions, and the Eero Saarinen–designed Milwaukee County War Memorial Center and David Kahler‒designed addition. The Museum recently reopened its Collection Galleries, debuting nearly 2,500 world-class works of art within dramatically transformed galleries and a new lakefront addition.

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Media Contact: Vicky Shokatz  vshokatz@buzzmonkeyspr.com /414-239-0407

Haunted Screens: German Cinema in the 1920s comes to the Milwaukee Art Museum just in time for Halloween

gallery-metropolis-robot-chair

Haunted Screens: German Cinema in the 1920s comes to the Milwaukee Art Museum just in time for Halloween

Exhibition from Paris examines groundbreaking movement that influenced contemporary filmmakers including Tim Burton, Martin Scorsese and Guy Maddin

Milwaukee, Wis. – Sept. 27, 2016 – The Milwaukee Art Museum is excited for visitors to experience its newest exhibition, Haunted Screens: German Cinema in the 1920s on view from Oct. 21 through Jan. 22. Organized by La Cinémathèque française, Paris, the exhibition examines the groundbreaking period in film history that occurred in Germany during the Weimar era after World War I, through more than 150 objects, including set design drawings, photographs, posters, documents, equipment, cameras and film clips from more than 20 films.

The Expressionist movement introduced a highly charged emotionalism to the artistic disciplines of painting, photography, theater, literature and architecture, as well as film, in the early part of the 20th century. German filmmakers employed geometrically skewed set designs, dramatic lighting, off-kilter framing, strong shadows and distorted perspectives to express a sense of uneasiness and discomfort. These films reflected the mood of Germany during this time, when Germans were reeling from the death and destruction of WWI and were enduring hyperinflation and other hardships.

“We’re thrilled to present Haunted Screens at the Milwaukee Art Museum this fall, and to offer our visitors a glimpse into a unique and revolutionary time in film and art history,” said Margaret Andera, the Museum’s adjunct curator of contemporary art. “This exhibition represents a tremendous period of creativity, and allows visitors a fascinating look at the nuanced aesthetics of German Expressionist cinema through a wealth of diverse objects.”

The exhibition is grouped into five sections by theme: Nature, Interiors, The Street, Staircases and The Expressionist Body. From the dark fantasy of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to the chilling murder mystery M, the exhibition explores masterworks of German Expressionist cinema in aesthetic, psychological and technical terms. More than 140 drawings are complemented by some 40 photographs, eight projected film clip sequences, numerous film posters, three cameras, one projector, and a resin-coated, life-size reproduction of the Maria robot from Metropolis.

German Expressionist cinema was the first self-conscious art cinema, influencing filmmakers throughout the world at the time and continuing to inspire artists today. It served as a catalyst for subsequent film genres, most notably science fiction and horror. The conflicting attitudes about technology and the future that are the cornerstones of science fiction, and the monsters and villains that form the basis of horror, appear often in Expressionist films. The influence of Expressionist cinema undoubtedly extends to the work of contemporary filmmakers, including Tim Burton, Martin Scorsese and Guy Maddin, whose 3-channel projection work, Kino Ektoplamsa, appears at the end of the exhibition.

The Museum is taking a unique approach to the exhibition’s installation design, one that mirrors the mood of the time and the objects on display. Walls intersecting at unexpected angles and even breaking through the exhibition space into Windhover Hall give visitors an engaging experience.

The Milwaukee Art Museum’s permanent collection includes extensive holdings in the German Expressionist area, including a significant collection of paintings from the period, as well as one of the most important collections of German Expressionist prints in the nation, the Marcia and Granvil Specks Collection. This collection includes more than 450 prints by German masters. Visitors are encouraged to stroll through the collection galleries after seeing Haunted Screens.

Haunted Screens was organized by La Cinémathèque française, and curated by Laurent Mannoni. More information about the exhibition, including ticket prices and hours, can be found at www.mam.org.

 

Related Programs

Film: Metropolis with Alloy Orchestra at the 2016 Milwaukee Film Festival

Monday, Oct. 3, 7 p.m. in the Oriental Theater

Milwaukee Film Festival’s encore presentation of Fritz Lang’s silent cinema classic Metropolis whets audience appetites before Haunted Screens opens. Visit mkefilm.org for tickets.

 Performance: Angst, Horror & Fun

Friday, Oct. 21, 6:30-9 p.m. in Windhover Hall

Present Music, Milwaukee’s new music pioneers, brings classic silent horror movies such as Nosferatu (1922) to life, in collaboration with Quasimondo Milwaukee Physical Theater. Visit presentmusic.org for tickets.

Film Series

Saturdays, Oct. 29, Nov. 12, Dec. 10, Jan. 14 at 2 p.m. in Lubar Auditorium

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, M, The Blue Angel, Rebecca

An opportunity to see three of the finest examples of German Expressionist cinema featured in the Haunted Screens in their entirety, then trace the profound impact of such films in Alfred Hitchcok’s film, Rebecca, the final in the series.

 Filmmakers’ Take: Three Gallery Talks for Haunted Screens

Fridays, Nov. 4, Dec. 2, Jan. 6 at 6 p.m.

Carl Bogner; Barry Poltermann and Frank Anderson; Mark Borchardt

Three local filmmakers join curator Margaret Andera in the exhibition and share their unique insights into 1920s German cinema.

Film Shorts: German Expressionism + Film with Milwaukee Film’s Jonathan Jackson

Saturday, Dec. 3 at 2 p.m. in Lubar Auditorium

This program explores the lasting impact of German Expressionism on film today, with Jonathan Jackson, artistic and executive director of Milwaukee Film.

 

About the Milwaukee Art Museum

Home to a rich collection of more than 30,000 works of art, the Milwaukee Art Museum is located on the shores of Lake Michigan. Its campus includes the Santiago Calatrava–designed Quadracci Pavilion, annually showcasing three feature exhibitions, and the Eero Saarinen–designed Milwaukee County War Memorial Center and David Kahler‒designed addition. The Museum recently reopened its Collection Galleries, debuting nearly 2,500 world-class works of art within dramatically transformed galleries and a new lakefront addition.

Dijkstra’s recent video installations to debut at the Milwaukee Art Museum

Dijkstra’s recent video installations to debut at the Milwaukee Art Museum

13879259_10153626115922047_6890410870746054748_nThe Milwaukee Art Museum is thrilled to debut the recent video installations of internationally acclaimed artist Rineke Dijkstra (Dutch, b. 1959) in Rehearsals, opening September 9 in the Herzfeld Center for Photography and Media Arts. Two video installations—Marianna (The Fairy Doll) and The Gymschool, St. Petersburg—will make their museum debut in this Milwaukee-originated exhibition organized by Lisa J. Sutcliffe, curator of photography and media arts.

Dijkstra filmed the two video installations featured in Rehearsals in Russia; the works examine the intensive rehearsals of young girls. Marianna (The Fairy Doll), a single-channel video never shown in the United States, presents a touching portrait of a ballerina as she practices for an audition in the prestigious Vaganova ballet academy. The Gymschool, St. Petersburg, a three channel video, highlights the flexibility and strict discipline of a group of young rhythmic gymnasts. Both videos, which Dijkstra produced for Manifesta, the European biennial of contemporary art, in 2014, reveal complex layers of determination and fragility as the girls attempt to conceal their emotions and perfect their crafts.

Over the past 30 years, Dijkstra has produced a sensitive and eloquent body of photographic and video work. In her large-scale photographs and video installations, she is particularly interested in moments of transition, especially adolescence, a time when individuals build their own identities and begin to present themselves in the way they wish to be perceived. Known for her acclaimed photographs of bathers—adolescents Dijkstra met on beaches from Poland to South Carolina—her subjects range from teenagers to mothers who have just given birth, bull fighters fresh from the ring and military recruits. In contrast to her earlier videos of visitors and dancers in nightclubs, Dijkstra’s recent videos capture young girls who have dedicated their lives to practicing incredible athletic routines. She does not concentrate on the final, polished performance but, rather, focuses on what is in fact a more impressive feat: the repetition, resolve, determination and constant practice that it takes to become a truly gifted performer. As the girls attempt to conceal their personal emotions, Dijkstra finds beauty in the moments of imperfection when they reveal their humanity.

Accompanying the Rehearsals exhibition is The Lives of Other: Portraits from the Photography Collection. This presentation of works from the Museum’s photography collection explores the interest many photographers have had in understanding how people present themselves to the world. The exhibition is organized thematically and includes an important new acquisition, Rineke Dijkstra’s Almerisa (1994–ongoing), purchased through the Christine A. Symchych and James P. McNulty Acquisition Fund. The work is an 11-part series that follows the transition of a young Bosnian refugee as she adapts to life in the West and grows from a girl to a woman with her own child.

“This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to view Rineke Dijkstra’s video installations in the context of contemporary and historical portraiture,” said Lisa J. Sutcliffe, the Milwaukee Art Museum’s curator of photography and media arts. “Marianna (The Fairy Doll) and The Gymschool, St. Petersburg reveal Dijkstra’s continued interest in examining the nature of transformation by closely observing the act of rehearsal itself.”

Both exhibitions are sponsored by the Herzfeld Foundation and on view through January 1, 2017.

 

Related Programs:

Rineke Dijkstra in conversation with Lisa Sutcliffe

Saturday, September 10, 2016, 3 p.m. in Lubar Auditorium.

Gallery Talks with curator Lisa Sutcliffe

Tuesdays at 1:30 p.m. in the Herzfeld Center for Photography and Media Arts.

September 20, October 18, and November 29.

Collaboration with Milwaukee Ballet

Following the theme of Rineke Dijkstra’s subject matter of dancers rehearsing, the Milwaukee Ballet’s second company, The Nancy Einhorn Milwaukee Ballet II Program, is hosting onsite rehearsals in Windhover Hall during the run of the exhibition. This program was established in 1978 to nurture and develop gifted young dancers, bridging the gap between student and professional. Similar to the dancers Rineke follows in her video installations, these dancers work to build their technical skills and artistry by dancing alongside Milwaukee Ballet Company professionals in mainstage productions, and develop their own performance programs and community work.

Friday, October 7, 11:30-1 p.m.

Friday, December 2, 10-2 p.m.

 

About Rineke Dijkstra                                                                                                                  Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra (b. 1959, Sittard, The Netherlands) studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. Her work has appeared in many international exhibitions and biennials including the 1997 and 2001 Venice Biennale, the 2005 Sharjah Biennial, and the 1998 Sao Paulo Biennial. The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam organized a large overview of her work, Rineke Dijkstra: Portraits, in 2005, which traveled to Jeu de Paume in Paris, La Caixa in Barcelona and Fotomuseum Winterthur. In the United States, a major retrospective of her work was organized in 2013 by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Citibank Private Bank Photography Prize in 1998. She lives and works in Amsterdam.

About the Milwaukee Art Museum                                                                                         Home to a rich collection of over 30,000 works of art, the Milwaukee Art Museum is located on the shores of Lake Michigan. Its campus includes the Santiago Calatrava–designed Quadracci Pavilion, annually showcasing three feature exhibitions, and the Eero Saarinen–designed Milwaukee County War Memorial Center and David Kahler-designed addition. The Museum recently reopened its Collection Galleries, debuting dramatically transformed galleries and a new lakefront addition, with nearly 2,500 world-class works of art on view.

Image: Rineke Dijkstra, Marianna (The Fairy Doll), 2014. One-channel HD video installation, surround sound;19 min. 13 sec., looped. Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery. ©Rineke Dijkstra.

Milwaukee Art Museum announces new museum library at historic Judge Jason Downer mansion

IMG_6766Milwaukee Art Museum announces new museum library at historic Judge Jason Downer mansion
-Move will provide increased public access to one-of-a-kind historic treasures-

 Milwaukee, Wis. Aug. 2, 2016 – The Milwaukee Art Museum today announced plans to move its art library, archives and related programs to the historic Judge Jason Downer mansion on Prospect Avenue in close proximity to the Museum. The library’s extensive holdings include nearly 27,000 volumes; 60,000 art catalogues, journals and magazines; and the Brooks Stevens and other institutional archives dating back to 1888.

“This is a wonderful addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum and the community. The new location will allow for greater library and archive access, as well as potential partnerships with area schools, colleges and professional organizations,” said Don Layden, president of the Milwaukee Art Museum’s board of trustees. “We couldn’t have found a better match, pairing this notable historic building with the Museum’s extraordinary historic archives.”

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the three-story Judge Jason Downer mansion was designed by architect Edward Townsend Mix and built in 1874.

2016 marks the 100th anniversary of the Milwaukee Art Museum library’s founding. The archives are entirely one-of-a-kind in the region and contain information on the Museum’s 130-year history dating back to the Layton Art Gallery and regional patron collecting which extends beyond Milwaukee, throughout the Midwest, to the East Coast, Europe and beyond.

“The quality of holdings in our library archives has been a best kept secret,” said Museum librarian/archivist Heather Winter. “Collecting and collector history is at the forefront of museum research and publishing and has become one of the most popular subjects for lectures and symposia around the world.”

“The move to the Downer mansion brings the Milwaukee Art Museum in step with the activities of art research libraries like the Frick and the Guggenheim,” said Layden.

The Downer mansion will more than double the Museum’s library space and will include reading rooms, study spaces and a lecture space. In preparation for this transition, the Museum library and archives closed in July and will reopen as the newly named Milwaukee Art Museum Research Center in Spring 2017.

About the Milwaukee Art Museum

Home to a rich collection of over 30,000 works of art, the Milwaukee Art Museum is located on the shores of Lake Michigan. Its campus includes the Santiago Calatrava–designed Quadracci Pavilion, annually showcasing three feature exhibitions, and the Eero Saarinen–designed Milwaukee County War Memorial Center and David Kahler‒designed addition. The Museum recently reopened its Collection Galleries, debuting nearly 2,500 world-class works of art within dramatically transformed galleries and a new lakefront addition.

 

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More art than ever this August at the Milwaukee Art Museum

More art than ever this August at the Milwaukee Art Museum

Milwaukee, Wis. — This August, the Milwaukee Art Museum features more rotating exhibitions than ever before due to a recent renovation and addition that allows for even more space to display art. Beginning Aug. 5 Museum visitors can escape to the 19th century French countryside in Corot, Daubigny, Millet: Visions of France, the latest exhibition in the Museum’s European Works on Paper Gallery.  The exhibition features 41 lush graphic works made with the cliché-verre (glass negative) technique, that combines printmaking and photography.  The exhibition features the work of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Jean-François Millet and Charles-François Daubigny and is on view through Nov. 27.

The Museum continues to enjoy American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood, sponsored by Bank of America, throughout the month of August. Visitors can join a Gallery Talk on the exhibition or listen along on an audio guide. On Aug. 7 the Museum says goodbye to Penelope Umbrico: Future Perfect. The first week of the month visitors will have one final chance to view the popular photography exhibition in the Herzfeld Center for Photography and Media Arts.

In addition, the Museum features an exhibition of European old master paintings and drawings from local collectors in From Rembrandt to Parmigianino: Old Masters from Private Collections presented by the Stephen Kohl Charitable Trust, and another on the 1920s emergence of American scene painting and regionalism in America Seen! Regionalism from the American Art Collection.

 A listing of additional August highlights is below. For the full schedule, visit mam.org/calendar/events or call 414/224-3200.

 -Quiet clubbing, the wireless headphones-dance club sensation, returns to MAM After Dark , presented by Northwestern Mutual, on Aug. 19, 8-12 a.m. Guests can immerse themselves in the music of two DJs as they battle in the quiet club.  Educators Credit Union is the evening sponsor for MAM After Dark: Quiet Clubbing 2.0.

-On Aug. 20, local group New Age Narcissism performs live at the Museum during the Art Xpress Bus Mural Opening Reception. Visitors can celebrate the teens of ArtXpress—and the mural they’ve created for a Milwaukee County Transit System bus. ArtXpress is an internship program, run in partnership with RedLine Milwaukee, that brings together a diverse group of teens to address community issues in a positive way through art.

-See the wide array of exhibition offerings for free Friday, Aug. 5 during Mejier Free First Friday. In between shows visitors can grab a drink at the East End Wine Bar’s Happy Hour, from 4–6p.m.

Admissions and Tours

The Museum is open Monday–Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Fridays until 8 p.m. Admission is $17 for adults; $15 for students, seniors and active military; and free for Members and children age 12 and under. The first Friday of each month is Meijer Free First Friday and Museum admission is free.

Drop-in tours are offered Tuesdays at noon, Saturdays at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. and focus on the Museum’s renovated and reinstalled Collection Galleries.

About the Milwaukee Art Museum

Home to a rich collection of over 30,000 works of art, the Milwaukee Art Museum is located on the shores of Lake Michigan. Its campus includes the Santiago Calatrava–designed Quadracci Pavilion, annually showcasing three feature exhibitions, and the Eero Saarinen–designed Milwaukee County War Memorial Center and David Kahler-designed addition. The Museum recently reopened its Collection Galleries, debuting nearly 2,500 world-class works of art within dramatically transformed galleries and a new lakefront addition.

 

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From Rembrandt to Parmigianino: Old Masters from Private Collections

Rembrandt_Study of the Head of an Old Man with Curly Hair

Exhibition affords a rare look at art from local collections

The age-old tradition of art collecting is highlighted in the Milwaukee Art Museum’s upcoming exhibition From Rembrandt to Parmigianino: Old Masters from Private Collections.  Opening July 29, this exhibition will give the public a rare chance to see treasured artworks from the private collections of regional residents, including several works from Wisconsin homes.

The history of collecting old master paintings and drawings stretches back to the early modern period (1400-1800) in which the artworks were created. Monarchs and noblemen alike sought out the latest creations, and formed enviable collections that were known across Europe. Collectors were often driven by the pleasure they derived from studying the skill of an artist and the status owning these works imparted. Many of these same motivations continue to drive today’s collectors.

During this exclusive presentation, Museum visitors will have the opportunity to enjoy more than 50 paintings and drawings by European Renaissance and Baroque masters, selected from the rich collections that reside within the community. These works have been rarely–if ever–seen by the public before.

“These objects form private museums in the homes of individuals who are so fortunate to own them, and the Museum is grateful that the collectors are willing to lend them for this public exhibition. Together this body of work provides a rare opportunity to understand why people have collected old masters throughout history, and why they continue to do so today,” says Tanya Paul, the Isabel and Alfred Bader curator of European Art.

From Rembrandt to Parmigianino: Old Masters from Private Collections also marks the occasion of two recent gifts to the Museum from the great Milwaukee connoisseur and collector of old master paintings, Alfred Bader and his wife Isabel. Not only has Dr. Bader been a longtime supporter of the Museum, but over his lifetime he has assembled one of the great collections of Dutch and Flemish paintings—a generous number of which will be on view in the exhibition. These two recent gifts are by Jacopo Vignali (Italian, 1592–1664) and Onofrio Gabrielli (Italian, 1616–1706) and will soon be on view in the permanent Collection Galleries.

The exhibition runs through October 23 and is sponsored by the Stephen Kohl Charitable Trust.

Exhibition Related Events

Gallery Talks with curator Tanya Paul

Tues, Aug 9 and Sept 13, 1:30 p.m.

 

Media Contact: Laura Simson

laura.simson@mam.org/ 414-224-3294

Image credit: Rembrandt van Rijn Study of the Head of an Old Man with Curly Hair, 1659 (detail). Milwaukee private collection.

July brings film, food, and family-fun events to the Museum!

In July, the Milwaukee Art Museum continues to enjoy the feature exhibition American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood, sponsored by Bank of America, with a partnering film series and family-friendly events, while simultaneously welcoming the latest show, From Rembrandt to Parmigianino: Old Masters from Private Collections.

On the last four Fridays in July, beginning at 6:15 p.m., the Museum will show a different classic film that inspired Thomas Hart Benton’s vibrant artwork as part of a series called “American Epics on the Silver Screen.”  The series highlights the cinematic output of Hollywood’s Golden Age and the period that directly followed, beginning with A Streetcar Named Desire on July 8.  The subsequent Friday, July 15, brings The Kentuckian, trailed by The Grapes of Wrath on July 22 and The Searchers on July 29. Visitors can grab a libation lakeside ahead of the screening during the East End Wine Bar’s new happy hour, every Friday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The Kohl’s Art Generation Family Sundays: Lights, Camera, ART! event on July 24, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., offers an interactive, Hollywood-inspired experience that the whole family can enjoy.  The event includes a tour of American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood, the chance to create a movie set masterpiece, and an interactive performance by local actors.  Admission for kids 12 and under is free.

From Rembrandt to Parmigianino: Old Masters from Private Collections, opening to the public on July 29, presents rarely seen works from private collections in the regional community, including several from Wisconsin homes.  The paintings and drawings in this exhibition were masterfully created by European Renaissance and Baroque artists and celebrate the tradition of collecting.  This exhibition is presented by the Stephen Kohl Charitable Trust.

Additional July highlights are included below. A full listing is available at mam.org/calendar/events.

 July 1st: Meijer Free First Friday

Admission to the Museum is free for everyone on the first Friday of every month, thanks to Meijer.

 July 3rd: Explosive July 3rd Event: Pinot & Pork on the Patio

Guests of this ticketed dinner gain an exclusive view of the fireworks over Lake Michigan from one of the Museum’s outdoor terraces.

July 5: Special Gallery Talk on Brook Stevens

Visitors have the opportunity to learn more about one of the country’s first industrial designers, Brooks Stevens, and the Museum’s extensive archive of his work.

July 16th”: Yoga @ the Museum

The Museum’s popular Saturday yoga class offers the opportunity for yogis to practice in a unique setting in Windhover Hall, overlooking the lake.

 

Admissions and Tours

The Museum is open Monday–Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Fridays until 8 p.m. Admission is $17 for adults; $15 for students, seniors and active military; and free for Members and children age 12 and under. The first Friday of each month is Meijer Free First Friday and Museum admission is free.

Drop-in tours are offered Tuesdays at noon, Saturdays at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.

Drop-in tours are offered Tuesdays at noon, Saturdays at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.

About the Milwaukee Art Museum

Home to a rich collection of over 30,000 works of art, the Milwaukee Art Museum is located on the shores of Lake Michigan. Its campus includes the Santiago Calatrava–designed Quadracci Pavilion, annually showcasing three feature exhibitions, and the Eero Saarinen–designed Milwaukee County War Memorial Center and David Kahler-designed addition. The Museum recently reopened its Collection Galleries, debuting dramatically transformed galleries and a new lakefront addition, with nearly 2,500 world-class works of art on view.

 

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Reimagined Milwaukee Art Museum Offers Local Residents and Summer Visitors A Top-Notch Cultural Destination and Guest Experience

1DX_8786Reimagined Milwaukee Art Museum Offers Local Residents and Summer Visitors A Top-Notch Cultural Destination and Guest Experience

As the summer travel season kicks off, Milwaukee’s iconic art institution showcases new and redesigned spaces and access to more of its impressive collection  

Milwaukee, Wis. – June 1, 2016 – Following a 6-year, $34 million transformation that opened last fall, the Milwaukee Art Museum – the largest visual art institution in Wisconsin and one of the oldest art museums in the nation – is set to welcome summer visitors from far and near.

“The Milwaukee Art Museum is one of the crown jewels of Milwaukee and, especially following our recent expansion, a top-notch cultural destination for casual visitors and art aficionados alike,” said Praveen Krishnamurti, Milwaukee Art Museum chief experience officer. “With some especially unique and innovative special exhibitions, we’re ramping up for a busy and exciting summer hosting the thousands of summer travelers set to pass through our city as well as local residents who have not yet had a chance to experience the new Museum.”

With dramatically enhanced exhibition and public spaces, the recent renovation and expansion creates an intuitive and welcoming visitor experience. In collection galleries now spanning 150,000 square feet, the Museum has installed 2,500 works – almost 1,000 more than have been on view previously – from its world-class Collection of 30,000.

With the official opening of the expansion last November, the Museum unveiled its first spaces devoted to 20th- and 21st-century design. In addition, the 10,000-square-foot Herzfeld Center for Photography and Media Arts – a space unparalleled in magnitude and scope for a museum of this size – represents the first time the Museum has dedicated significant permanent collection and gallery space to photography, video and light-based media.

Other enhancements include new, expanded and interactive spaces for families including the Kohl’s Art Generation Gallery and Kohl’s Art Generation Lab; a new entrance along Lake Michigan that connects the Museum to the lakefront path; East End Wine Bar, a coffee and wine bar with outdoor lakeside seating; and panoramic views of the lake and the Museum’s iconic Santiago Calatrava-designed Quadracci Pavilion. The new Bradley Family Gallery doubles the capacity for special exhibitions.

This summer’s feature exhibition, American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood, will be on view June 10 – September 5 in the Baker/Rowland Galleries. This major re-evaluation of Benton’s art, the first in more than 25 years, explores how the motion picture industry influenced and ignited the artist’s imagination.

Melding Old Master European painting traditions with Hollywood’s cinematic and production techniques, Benton reinvented 20th-century American narratives and captivated the public with his signature brand of visual storytelling. The exhibition pairs clips from Hollywood movies with Benton’s art from the 1920s through the 1960s to take visitors on a journey through America’s myths and into its national character.

“As the final stop on the national tour of American Epics, we’re delighted to present visitors to the Milwaukee Art Museum with a rare look at more than 100 of Benton’s works, including paintings, murals, drawings, prints and illustrated books,” said Brandon Ruud, Abert Family Curator of American Art at the Museum.

This summer, the new Herzfeld Center for Photography and Media Arts will feature Penelope Umbrico: Future Perfect, the first major museum exhibition of the New York-based photographer whose career spans the advent of the Internet. Umbrico mines the flood of images on Craigslist, Flickr, and other social media sites and appropriates them as source material to create large-scale installations that reveal contemporary society’s collective photographic habits and the underlying desires that shape them. On view now through August 7, Future Perfect features new work made specifically for Milwaukee alongside the artist’s most acclaimed projects from the past decade.

During the coming months the Milwaukee Art Museum will also prepare to welcome Dr. Marcelle Polednik as the first Donna and Donald Baumgartner director. Polednik, who succeeds Dan Keegan as Museum director, was selected after a robust national search from a field of dozens of candidates and is expected to begin working at the Museum in mid-August.

Finally, the Museum will once again host Milwaukee’s definitive summer arts event, the Lakefront Festival of Art (LFOA), June 17-19. LFOA features the works of more than 170 national artists amid activities, food and entertainment, while serving as a primary fundraiser for the Museum.

For a full calendar of summer events and exhibitions along with comprehensive visitor information, please visit www.mam.org/uncrated.

About the Milwaukee Art Museum

Home to a rich collection of over 30,000 works of art, the Milwaukee Art Museum is located on the shores of Lake Michigan. Its campus includes the Santiago Calatrava–designed Quadracci Pavilion, annually showcasing three feature exhibitions, and the Eero Saarinen–designed Milwaukee County War Memorial Center and David Kahler‒designed addition. The Museum recently reopened its Collection Galleries, debuting nearly 2,500 world-class works of art within dramatically transformed galleries and a new lakefront addition.

Exhibition credits

American Epics is organized by the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, in collaboration with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas. The exhibition was made possible in part by National Tour Sponsor Bank of America and a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Celebrating 50 years of excellence, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Additional support provided by the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Friends of Art.

Penelope Umbrico is presented by the Herzfeld Foundation.

American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood on view this summer at Milwaukee Art Museum

unspecifiedAmerican Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood on view this summer at Milwaukee Art Museum

Reveals film industry’s influence on artist’s legendary artistic career; First retrospective in more than 25 years

Milwaukee, Wis. – May 23, 2016 – The Milwaukee Art Museum is excited to share this year’s summer exhibition, American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood, on view from June 10 to Sept. 5. This is the first major exhibition on Benton in more than 25 years, and will portray the connection between his film industry experience and artistic career through approximately 100 works. Visitors to the exhibition will be transported as they step into a gallery filled with screen-worthy melodramas, war sagas and western spectacles.

American painter Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) was influenced by Hollywood’s motion picture industry and reinvented 20th-century American narratives by incorporating cinematic production techniques with an Old Master European style. Benton became acutely aware of the motion picture industry’s rising influence and was sent by “Life” magazine to work in Hollywood on commission, where he discovered visual and thematic artistic inspiration.

“This exhibition is really the first to cohesively connect Benton’s cinema experience, from subject matter to techniques, with his paintings,” says Brandon Ruud, Abert Family Curator of American Art at the Milwaukee Art Museum. “His fusion of traditional painting and contemporary, larger-than-life storytelling fueled by Hollywood is really extraordinary, and we are so pleased to share it at the Museum this summer.”

Themes of cultural identity, westward expansion, tolerance, prejudice and the American Dream were given epic treatment on the silver screen, and Benton harnessed those dramatic portrayals in his paintings. Perhaps Benton’s most notable work, American Historical Epic, is a series painted between 1920 and 1928 and runs more than 60 feet in length. Through this, he depicted the nation’s past in unconventional ways to engage controversial issues such as race relations and national identity.

Like Hollywood, he recognized typecasting as a way to transform individuals into a cast of American characters and personalities. Between 1937 and 1954, Benton painted five major works for projects related to motion pictures, including John Ford’s film adaptation of John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath.”

Among these nearly 100 works, there will be 50 paintings and murals along with a selection of his drawings, prints and illustrated books. In addition, rare archival photographs and related ephemera, film clips and stills will also represent this quintessential American artist.

The exhibition National Tour Sponsor is Bank of America.

American Epics is organized by the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, in collaboration with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas. The exhibition was made possible in part by Bank of America and a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Celebrating 50 years of excellence, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Additional support provided by the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Friends of Art.

About the Milwaukee Art Museum

Home to a rich collection of more than 30,000 works of art, the Milwaukee Art Museum is located on the shores of Lake Michigan. Its campus includes the Santiago Calatrava–designed Quadracci Pavilion, annually showcasing three feature exhibitions, and the Eero Saarinen–designed Milwaukee County War Memorial Center and David Kahler‒designed addition. The Museum recently reopened its Collection Galleries, debuting nearly 2,500 world-class works of art within dramatically transformed galleries and a new lakefront addition.

[Thomas Hart Benton. Portrait of a Musician, 1949. Casein, egg tempera, and oil varnish on canvas, mounted on wood panel. 48 1⁄ 2 × 32 in. (123.2 × 81.3 cm)
Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri–Columbia, Anonymous gift, 67.136. Art © T.H. Benton and R.P. Benton Testamentary Trusts/UMB Bank Trustee/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY]

Milwaukee Art Museum Announces New Director

13254244_10154235868353023_8398114515359633330_nMilwaukee Art Museum Announces New Director

– Marcelle Polednik selected from field of dozens of national candidates; poised to harness Museum’s momentum –

Milwaukee, Wis. – May 17, 2016 – The Milwaukee Art Museum board of trustees announced today it has selected Dr. Marcelle Polednik as the first Donna and Donald Baumgartner director. Polednik, currently the director and chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, joins the Museum at a significant time in its history after an extensive $34 million renovation, reinstallation and expansion project, and the historic acquisition of the O’Donnell Property. Polednik was selected after a robust national search from a field of dozens of candidates. She is expected to start working at the Museum in mid-August.

“Following a year of transformative and groundbreaking projects, the Milwaukee Art Museum is embarking on a period of tremendous growth and opportunity. Our board sought a candidate who recognized that momentum, and could build on it and take the institution to the next level,” said Don Layden, president of the Milwaukee Art Museum’s board of trustees. “Marcelle is forward-thinking, bright and innovative, and we’re thrilled she’s coming to Milwaukee.”

Polednik brings extensive experience to the Museum. At MOCA Jacksonville, she redefined the Museum’s artistic vision and mission, shifting the emphasis from traveling exhibitions to self-curated projects, which now comprise nearly all of the Museum’s artistic initiatives. Under her leadership, the Museum’s exhibition program grew in both number and stature. The founding of the Museum’s Project Atrium series—a suite of site-specific commissions by emerging and mid-career artists—invigorated the Museum’s monumental Atrium gallery and bolstered MOCA’s experimental approach to artistic collaboration and audience participation, as recognized by a two-year grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. In addition to the founding of this significant series, Polednik charted the vision for MOCA’s featured exhibition program, refining MOCA’s artistic philosophy. While adding variety to the exhibition program and growing the permanent collection, Polednik focused on cultivating a distinct MOCA-branded interpretative approach that connected the projects across the varied media and subject matter they may individually explore.

The emphasis on self-curated projects as well as Polednik’s innovative approach to the artistic vision as a whole have raised the profile of the organization, bringing a new level of local, regional and national attention to the Museum. They have also spurred key partnerships with collectors and cultural organizations nationwide, as evidenced by MOCA’s growing traveling exhibition program. While at the helm of the Museum, Polednik curated several significant curatorial initiatives—SLOW: Marking Time in Photography and Film (2012); Abstraction over Time: The Paintings of Michael Goldberg (2013), WHITE (2015) and Hans Hofmann: Works on Paper (2017).

As she redefined the Museum’s curatorial program, Polednik also brought a renewed emphasis on MOCA’s award-winning signature educational outreach initiatives, focusing on growing both their breadth and depth. Under her leadership, MOCA’s attendance grew by more than 70 percent and general admission revenue increased by 147 percent. Through these activities, Polednik ushered in the Museum’s philanthropic revival, raising annual contributed income by 75 percent ahead of the 40 percent budgetary growth. The focus on artistic integrity, excellence and innovation also paved the way for growing interest from national funding sources and precipitated last year’s announcement of the largest gift ever given to a cultural organization in Jacksonville’s history. This announcement was followed by the January 2016 launch of MOCA’s rebrand, which emphasized a bold new approach to the Museum’s digital sphere, online presence and virtual audience engagement.

“I am honored to lead the Milwaukee Art Museum at the defining moment in the life of this exceptional institution,” Polednik said. “Building on the solid foundation established by my  predecessors, I look forward to working with the Museum’s talented team, devoted board of trustees and the Milwaukee community at large to usher in an era of unprecedented artistic accomplishment, one that charts the path to deeper, meaningful audience engagement, financial sustainability and local, regional and national renown.”

Prior to her position at MOCA Jacksonville, Polednik was the chief curator at the Monterey Museum of Art. She was also previously an assistant curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

“Marcelle brings considerable curatorial and management experience from diverse museums to her new role,” said Adam D. Weinberg, Alice Pratt Brown director, Whitney Museum of American Art. “Her broad knowledge of 20th century art, her focus on creating distinctive, original exhibitions, her commitment to community involvement and her leadership abilities—not to mention her warmth and energy—make her the perfectly well-rounded director to lead the Milwaukee Art Museum into its next exciting chapter.”

Polednik earned her doctorate in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University and has curated numerous exhibitions and authored articles for various catalogs and institutions including The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Originally from Poland, Polednik grew up in Deerfield, Ill. She is a native speaker of Polish and Czech and is fluent in Slovak, Spanish, French and German. Polednik will be moving to Milwaukee with her husband and son.

The newly named Donna and Donald Baumgartner director title honors a recent $8 million gift to the Museum’s endowment from Donna and Donald Baumgartner. Polednik succeeds Dan Keegan, who is retiring this month. The executive search for the new director was led by Naree Viner and Charles Ingersoll of Korn Ferry.

About the Milwaukee Art Museum

Home to a rich collection of more than 30,000 works of art, the Milwaukee Art Museum is located on the shores of Lake Michigan. Its campus includes the Santiago Calatrava–designed Quadracci Pavilion, annually showcasing three feature exhibitions, and the Eero Saarinen–designed Milwaukee County War Memorial Center and David Kahler‒designed addition. The Museum recently reopened its Collection Galleries, debuting nearly 2,500 world-class works of art within dramatically transformed galleries and a new lakefront addition.

Donna and Donald Baumgartner make historic endowment gift to Milwaukee Art Museum

Donna and Donald Baumgartner make historic endowment gift to Milwaukee Art Museum

-$8 million gift dedicated to support Museum Director; largest gift ever made to institution’s endowment-

Milwaukee, Wis. – May 16, 2016 – The Milwaukee Art Museum today announced that Donna and Donald Baumgartner will make an $8 million gift to the Museum’s endowment. Their gift is dedicated to support the position of Museum Director, whose title will be named the Donna and Donald Baumgartner Director of the Milwaukee Art Museum. This is the largest gift made to the Museum’s growing endowment fund in the institution’s history.

“We’ve been so inspired by Dan Keegan’s leadership and vision for the future, in particular his passion for securing the viability of the Museum for generations to come. We wanted to carry on his legacy and keep the momentum going,” said Donna Baumgartner.

Keegan will retire this week after more than eight years as Museum Director.

The historic gift to the Museum’s endowment comes on the heels of the Baumgartner’s recently announced transfer of ownership of the family company, Paper Machinery Corp., to its employees. Donald Baumgartner founded the company in 1951, which today employs more than 250 people and is the world’s leading manufacturer of machines used to produce paperboard cups and containers for brands such as McDonald’s, Starbucks, KFC and Tim Hortons. The Baumgartners’ pride of all things Milwaukee also links their business to their philanthropy. Every machine produced at Paper Machinery Corp. carries a plaque reading “Made in Milwaukee” along with an image of the Milwaukee Art Museum.

The Baumgartners are longtime supporters of the Museum, and Donald is a current trustee and a past president of the board. He was part of the architecture selection committee and served as chairman of the building committee during the construction of the Santiago Calatrava-designed addition, which has since become the iconic symbol of Milwaukee. Their endowment gift is yet another signal that the Baumgartners aim to support the causes they are passionate about during the next chapter in their lives.

“We are very proud of the Milwaukee Art Museum as an institution and as a vital part of the city in which we’ve lived and worked,” said Donald Baumgartner. “Our gift is a way to celebrate past accomplishments and support future directors as they lead Milwaukee’s most acclaimed cultural institution.”

Endowment gifts are invested permanently and only the earnings are used for the donors’ intention. The original gift therefore remains intact in perpetuity generating income for the Museum’s operations for generations to come.

“I am deeply honored and humbled by this significant gift to the Museum, and we are all grateful to the Baumgartners for their unwavering support,” said Keegan. “There is no finer legacy gift than a gift to the endowment, and this sets a strong foundation for future directors to build on.”

About the Milwaukee Art Museum

Home to a rich collection of more than 30,000 works of art, the Milwaukee Art Museum is located on the shores of Lake Michigan. Its campus includes the Santiago Calatrava–designed
Quadracci Pavilion, annually showcasing three feature exhibitions, and the Eero Saarinen–designed Milwaukee County War Memorial Center and David Kahler‒designed addition. The Museum recently reopened its Collection Galleries, debuting nearly 2,500 world-class works of art within dramatically transformed galleries and a new lakefront addition.

New Milwaukee Art Museum Membership Offers More Access to Area Families

New Milwaukee Art Museum Membership Offers More Access to Area Families

“Family Access Membership” available starting May 15

The Milwaukee Art Museum is pleased to announce the launch of a new membership program that will offer access to more local families. The Family Access Membership, based on a number of successful national models, is a $20 yearlong family membership to the Museum for families who qualify for specific forms of public assistance. The program is supported in part by a grant from Nordstrom.

“We believe art education and unique cultural experiences are a right for every child and every family,” said Dan Keegan, Milwaukee Art Museum Director. “This new membership program makes those experiences more accessible, and that’s something we’re very passionate about.”

Typically $85 for a family membership, the new Family Access level grants two adult admissions plus children 17-years-and-under for one year for $20. The membership also includes other benefits such as a 10% Museum Store and Café Calatrava discount, reduced parking rates, a yearly subscription to the Member Magazine and more. Families are eligible with proof of public assistance from WIC, FoodShare and BadgerCare.

“The Milwaukee Art Museum is a resource for the whole community and a place where everyone is welcome,” said Marina Dimitrijevic, Milwaukee County Board Supervisor and a champion of the new program. “We’re so excited about the potential for this initiative to benefit Milwaukee families in a lasting and impactful way with year-round access to the Museum and its events.”

The Museum will host a Family Access Membership kick-off during the Kohl’s Art Generation Family Sundays event May 15, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Family Sundays is the perfect time for families to visit the Museum, and includes hands-on art activities, interactive performances, family tours and more. Staff will be on hand that day to help register qualifying participants for the new membership. Community partner groups have been invited to participate in the celebration.

Application for membership is easy, and can be done starting May 15 in person at the Museum, or by downloading a form from the website and mailing it in. Documentation of public assistance is required.

About the Milwaukee Art Museum

Home to a rich collection of over 30,000 works of art, the Milwaukee Art Museum is located on the shores of Lake Michigan. Its campus includes the Santiago Calatrava–designed Quadracci Pavilion, annually showcasing three feature exhibitions, and the Eero Saarinen–designed Milwaukee County War Memorial Center and David Kahler‒designed addition. The Museum recently reopened its Collection Galleries, debuting nearly 2,500 world-class works of art within dramatically transformed galleries and a new lakefront addition.

Media Contact:  Vicky Shokatz, 414-443-0850 x13

Spring brings new exhibition and local artist collaboration to Milwaukee Art Museum

Joseph E. Yoakum

Spring brings new exhibition and local artist collaboration to Milwaukee Art Museum

Milwaukee, Wis. — In April, the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Collection takes the spotlight in a brand new exhibition, lectures and drop-in tours, and a special collaboration with Milwaukee artist Reginald Baylor.

Taking Center Stage: The Lanford Wilson Collection of Self-Taught Art, opening April 15, celebrates the important 2012 gift of the Lanford Wilson Collection to the Milwaukee Art Museum. Folk and self-taught art is an area of particular strength at the Museum; this new collection strengthened the Museum’s position as a leading institution internationally for work by untrained creators. Visitors can expect paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by renowned self-taught artists such as Felipe Archuleta, David Butler, Vestie Davis, Bessie Harvey, William Hawkins, and Joseph Yoakum to be on view through July 3. This is the second exhibition in the Museum’s new Bradley Family Gallery, part of a lakeside addition that was completed in November.

In addition, visitors will now be able to take home their own interactive work of art from the Museum Store. On trend with 2016’s adult coloring book craze, the Milwaukee Art Museum and local artist and entrepreneur Reginald Baylor have teamed up to create a coloring book. The book features Baylor’s original artwork, inspired by works in the Museum’s Collection, including visitor favorites such as The Cock of the Liberation by Pablo Picasso and The Two Majesties by Jean-Léon Gérôme. Baylor’s own painting On Duty, Not Driving is part of the Museum’s Collection as well.

 The limited edition, signed and numbered coloring book will be available to the public for purchase starting at MAM After Dark on Friday, April 22.

A listing of additional April highlights is below. Events are free with Museum admission unless otherwise noted. For the full schedule, visit mam.org/calendar/events or call 414/224-3200.

-Indulge at the spring wine dinner centered on fresh-picked morel mushrooms. Friday, April 29, 6 p.m. $125/$115 Member + tax and gratuity.

Hear recent research on the beloved painting Waterloo Bridge by the Impressionist master Claude Monet, Saturday, April 9, 2 p.m.

-Visitors can unwind and clear their minds Saturday, April 9, at Yoga @ the Museum!

Admissions and Tours

The Museum is open Tuesday–Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Fridays until 8 p.m. Admission is $17 for adults; $15 for students, seniors and active military; and free for Members and children age 12 and under. The first Friday of each month is Meijer Free First Friday and Museum admission is free.

Drop-in tours are offered Tuesdays at noon, Saturdays at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. and focus on the Museum’s renovated and reinstalled Collection Galleries.

 

(Joseph E. Yoakum (American, 1890–1972) Mt. Spur in Alaska Mt. Range near Wyoneck AK, 1969. Ballpoint pen and colored pencil on paper. The Lanford Wilson Collection.)

 

Milwaukee Art Museum debuts Penelope Umbrico: Future Perfect May 5

Umbrico_8aUmbrico_8b

Artist’s first major museum exhibition explores photography in the Internet age

Milwaukee Art Museum debuts Penelope Umbrico: Future Perfect May 5

Milwaukee, Wis.- From May 5 to Aug. 7, 2016, the Milwaukee Art Museum will present Penelope Umbrico: Future Perfect, the first major museum exhibition of New York-based photographer Penelope Umbrico. An artist whose career spans the advent of the Internet, Umbrico mines the flood of images shared on Craigslist, Flickr, and other social media sites, and appropriates them as source material for her work. Thinking about why we take photographs and share them, she creates large-scale installations that reveal contemporary society’s collective photographic habits and the underlying desires that shape them.

Future Perfect features over thirty photo-based installations—comprising nearly 5,000 individual images along with photographs, videos and books that trace Umbrico’s obsessive systems of inquiry and online research since 2006.  The exhibition will also feature new work made specifically for Milwaukee, alongside the artist’s most acclaimed projects from the past decade. Highlights include:

-The ever-expanding, Suns from Sunsets from Flickr (2006-ongoing), in which Umbrico prints suns cropped from over 28 million sunset photographs on Flickr, as well as the evolving projects it is has inspired over the past ten years.

-Tvs from Craigslist (2008 – ongoing), revealing accidental self-portraits and intimate details in reflections in the screens of television for sale online.

-Broken Sets (eBay) (2008 –ongoing), Umbrico’s use of the abstract compositions displayed in the broken LCD screens that collapse the obsolescence and breakdown of new technology with the visionary aesthetic of Modernism.

-Range: of Masters of Photography (2012-ongoing), for which she re-photographs the mountain images of iconic photographers such as Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, transforming them through hundreds of smart phone photo filter apps, to emerge fluorescent and warped.

By meticulously documenting where she found and how she manipulated each image, Umbrico also raises questions about fair use, ownership and creative expression in an age when everyone takes photographs.

“Penelope Umbrico is part of the first generation of artists to explore photography’s transition to digital,” said Lisa J. Sutcliffe, Milwaukee Art Museum’s curator of photography and media arts.  “At first glance, her enigmatic installations are abstract, and seductively beautiful, but they also reinvent and challenge the way we understand photography as a medium.”

Future Perfect is the first solo exhibition by a contemporary artist in the Museum’s new Herzfeld Center for Photography and Media Arts, a 10,000 square-foot foot space devoted to a global array of photography, film, video installation, and media art. The exhibition is supported by the Herzfeld Foundation.

About the artist

Born in Philadelphia in 1957, Umbrico lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.  She attended the Ontario College of Art, Toronto (1980) and received an MFA (1989) from the School of Visual Arts, New York. She has published numerous books including a monograph Penelope Umbrico (photographs) (Aperture 2011) and most recently Range (Aperture 2014) and Out of Order (RVB Books 2014).  She is the recipient of awards and grants including a Guggenheim Fellowship (2011), a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2012) and the John Gutmann Photography Award (2012).

In 2015 the Aldrich Museum in Connecticut featured her recent work in Shallow Sun. Her work is in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Solomon Guggenheim Museum, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art among others. Umbrico has taught at Bard College’s Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts MFA program where she was the Chair of Photography from 2005-2011 and she is core faculty at the School of the Visual Arts.

About the Milwaukee Art Museum

Home to a rich collection of over 30,000 works of art, the Milwaukee Art Museum is located on the shores of Lake Michigan. Its campus includes the Santiago Calatrava–designed Quadracci Pavilion, annually showcasing three feature exhibitions, and the Eero Saarinen–designed Milwaukee County War Memorial Center and David Kahler‒designed addition. The Museum recently reopened its Collection Galleries, debuting nearly 2,500 world-class works of art within dramatically transformed galleries and a new lakefront addition.

 

Related programs

Artist Talk and Opening Reception

Saturday, May 7, 3:00 p.m.

Opening Reception 4:00 p.m.

Gallery Talks with the Curator

Tuesday, June 7, 1:30 p.m.

Tuesday, July 26, 1:30 p.m.

Tuesday, August 2, 1:30 p.m.

 

(Penelope Umbrico, Broken Sets (Microsoft/Mac), 2009 – ongoing. Chromogenic prints. Each 30×40 inches. Courtesy the artist, Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York and Mark Moore Gallery, Culver City, CA ©Penelope Umbrico)

Milwaukee Art Museum Makes Offer to Purchase O’Donnell Property

The OverlookMilwaukee Art Museum Makes Offer to Purchase O’Donnell Property

Milwaukee, Wis. – March 8, 2016, 1:00 p.m. – In an unprecedented “public-to-public” transaction that will provide for the long-term preservation of public assets, the Milwaukee Art Museum today announced it has made an offer to acquire the O’Donnell Property and its multi-level parking garage from Milwaukee County.

Under the terms of the proposal, the Museum will assume $28.8 million in liabilities in a non-cash transaction in which the Museum will take ownership of the O’Donnell Property. The deal also includes a transfer in ownership of the Kahler Building (inclusive of the new East Addition) and the space within the Saarinen Building, currently occupied by the Museum, to the Museum. The Milwaukee Art Museum will assume full responsibility for the county’s current 84-year obligation for capital maintenance and repair for those facilities, valued in today’s dollars at $28.8 million of county-taxpayer obligations.

“We think this proposal is good for county taxpayers and good for the community,” said Dan Keegan, Milwaukee Art Museum Director. “The proposal relieves county taxpayers of a long-term commitment, provides permanence and stability for the Museum, and ensures that future generations will have public access to the lakefront for years to come.”

In addition, the Museum will assume the cost burden for structural repairs and maintenance needed to maintain the O’Donnell Property. The Museum has plans to transform the garage into a state-of-the-art parking facility after making all deferred repairs, including replacing a rubber membrane on the roof of the parking garage and plaza that has been leaking. Costs of other deferred maintenance are estimated at an additional $5.4 million. The Museum will also install the latest automated prepay booths and provide electronic signs, more lights and 24-hour security.

Aesthetic improvements will be made to the public park area and will be determined once designs for other lakefront projects are finalized, including the Lakefront Gateway, Couture and footbridge over Michigan Avenue connecting Couture and O’Donnell.

“This partnership preserves public ownership of the land for future generations, ensures continued public access and exercise of free speech while maximizing the economic value to the taxpayer today,” said Theodore A. Lipscomb, Sr., Milwaukee County Board Chairman.

The O’Donnell Property includes an upper plaza with two pavilions and two separate open spaces at the east end of Wisconsin Ave. The three-story Miller Brewing Pavilion is home to the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum and Coast Restaurant operated by the Zilli Hospitality Group. Zilli also has office space in the Promontory Pavilion. The Museum will honor those existing leases as part of the transaction.

The Museum will create a capital reserve fund with revenue generated from the O’Donnell parking facility that is expected to cover the costs of maintaining and repairing all structures of what will now be a museum campus of buildings including the garage.

The newly renovated Milwaukee Art Museum is expected to attract more visitors, creating a demand for more parking. The O’Donnell garage is the main place for Museum patrons to park, with the footbridge over N. Lincoln Memorial Drive connecting the two buildings.

“We’re grateful to the Art Museum for working with us to arrive at what we all agree is now both a good deal for a great institution and a good deal for County taxpayers,” said Chris Abele, Milwaukee County Executive. “As each institution reviews this deal we are confident they will do so with an eye towards sustainability for all.”

The terms of the proposal will go before the Milwaukee County Finance Committee on Thursday, March 10 and before the County Board for a vote on Thursday, March 17.

About the Milwaukee Art Museum

Home to a rich collection of over 30,000 works of art, the Milwaukee Art Museum is located on the shores of Lake Michigan. Its campus includes the Santiago Calatrava–designed Quadracci Pavilion, annually showcasing three feature exhibitions, and the Eero Saarinen–designed Milwaukee County War Memorial Center and David Kahler‒designed addition. The Museum recently reopened its Collection Galleries, debuting nearly 2,500 world-class works of art within dramatically transformed galleries and a new lakefront addition.

Media Contact: Mary Roberts, (414) 839-4175

Note to editors:  Images for media use are available via this link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gti72htltp4hoze/AAC3E3qfmzlARm-fJfv0jGf6a?dl=0

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AWAKEN THE SENSES, WELCOME SPRING AT MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM’S ANNUAL “Art in Bloom”

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AWAKEN THE SENSES, WELCOME SPRING AT MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM’S ANNUAL “Art in Bloom”

The popular floral spectacle, marketplace and fashion show returns March 17-20

Milwaukee, Wis. – March 4, 2016 – One of Milwaukee’s signature spring events, Art in Bloom, returns to the Milwaukee Art Museum March 17-20 for its annual weekend of fun, flowers and fashion. Presented by PNC Bank, this celebration of art through flowers offers visitors a chance to revel in the magnificent colors and scents of spring through more than 40 art-inspired floral installations throughout the Museum. Art in Bloom also includes workshops, lectures, crafts, a fashion show and an artisan marketplace.

The floral displays are created by leading regional experts in gardening and floral and landscape design. This year, the designs will be influenced and inspired by the Museum’s newly reopened Collection Galleries.

“It’s always amazing to see how our designers are able to bring pieces to life through Art in Bloom,” says Dan Keegan, Director, Milwaukee Art Museum. “Spring is a time of renewal and this year has special significance with our new Collection Galleries setting the stage for this seasonal community celebration.”

Beauty in Bloom, the weekend’s innovative floral fashion show, will also return Saturday, March 19. This one-night-only ticketed event is a highlight of the season, with hors d’oeuvres, beverages and music. But the real highlights, set against the stunning backdrop of Windhover Hall, are the awe-inspiring gowns and accessories created entirely from flowers and foliage that need to be seen to be believed.

Art in Bloom also features:

– Daily presentaions on a wide range of interests, including science, botanicals, sustainability and food

– Fun hands-on activities for all ages, including a Kohl’s Art Generation Studio craft for kids and Wine & Canvas painting sessions for adults

– A Marketplace filled with flowers, clothing, purses, jewelry, beauty products and garden accessories, featuring local vendors and artisans.

Programs are aimed at a wide range of interests. Art in Bloom is not just for gardeners, but foodies, brides and those looking for a new experience. Program highlights:

Wedding Floral – with designer Bjorn Chinander- Saturday, Mar. 19, 11 a.m. The latest trends in wedding flowers, colors and themes.

Beauty from Blight: The Flower House Detroit– with Lisa Waud and Heather Saunders- Sunday, Mar. 20, 1 p.m.  Achance to learn about Flower House, an exhibition of American-grown flowers and plants held in an abandoned Detroit house that captured international attention in 2015.

Food Demonstration– with Milwaukee Art Museum chef Jason Gorman- Sunday Mar 20, 3 p.m.  Gorman demonstrates and prepares his amazing gnocchi pomodoro.

“Art in Bloom is a shining example of our city’s vibrant and alluring arts scene,” said Chris Goller, PNC regional president for Wisconsin. “As a supporter of the show and partner in the recent renovation of the new Collection Galleries, we look forward to bringing these rich experiences to visitors of all ages.”

Art in Bloom runs March 17-20. Hours are Thursday/Friday 10 a.m.-8 p.m. and Saturday/Sunday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tickets to Art in Bloom and related events can be purchased online at www.mam.org/bloom.

Additional March events

As a reminder, the Milwaukee Art Museum is now open late Friday evenings until 8 p.m. (no longer on Thursdays). A Friday evening visit to the Museum is the perfect way to kick of a spring weekend by taking in the feature exhibition Nature and the American Vision, viewing the new Collection Galleries or winding down the week with a drink in the Museum’s new wine bar.

In addition to Art in Bloom, the Milwaukee Art Museum has a full calendar of March events for the whole family to enjoy. On March 13, Kohl’s Art Generation Family Sundays’ theme will be “Back to Nature” to highlight the feature exhibition Nature and the American Vision: The Hudson River School. Visitors can “hike” through the exhibition, tell stories around a “campfire,” paint a landscape from the windows of the Museum and more. An Easter Brunch on March 27 in Windhover Hall offers seatings at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. and includes a visit from the Easter Bunny. Menu and pricing details for the Easter Brunch can be found at www.mam.org.

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Announcing the opening of Mrs. M.––––– ’s Cabinet at the Milwaukee Art Museum

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Mrs. M.––––– ’s Cabinet, a new installation by the Chipstone Foundation, will open in the Constance and Dudley Godfrey American Wing in the Milwaukee Art Museum on February 20, 2016.

The Chipstone Foundation is a private foundation based in Milwaukee devoted to the study of American decorative arts and material culture.  Chipstone has partnered with the Milwaukee Art Museum for more than 15 years to share its collection of early American furniture, ceramics and prints and English ceramics with the community.

Mrs. M.––––– ’s Cabinet is a lavish nineteenth-century interior, filled with some of the finest and most diverse objects found in the British Atlantic colonies in the seventeenth century.  This Cabinet is designed to inspire wonder, curiosity and perhaps even some mystery. Mrs. M.––––– herself is a mysterious character, one who exists somewhere between fact and fiction. Her remarkable tale and impressive collection allow the Chipstone Foundation to tell unexpectedly true stories about early America.

Curator and Director of Research Sarah Anne Carter explains, “Mrs. M.––––– collected historic items from around the world in a period (the late nineteenth century) when designers were drawing inspiration from diverse cultures. Her nineteenth-century room is the ideal way to highlight the cosmopolitan nature of her seventeenth-century collection.” When asked whether or not Mrs. M.–––––  really existed, Carter demurred, “Mrs. M.––––– is as real as any historical person you may wish to recreate.” Director and Chief Curator of the Chipstone Foundation, Jonathan Prown, adds  “Most art museum presentations are historically ambivalent, often rooted in the complex cultural and aesthetic needs of the museum makers themselves. In our installation, essential facts and ideas from the past are presented through Mrs. M.–––––.”

Handcrafted by skilled artisans, Mrs. M.––––– ’s Cabinet is inspired by the McKim, Mead and White interiors in Isaac Bell House in Newport Rhode Island. Designer Brent Budsberg notes, “The carefully researched, handmade paneling and elaborate late-nineteenth-century details represent thousands of hours of work by many skilled craftspeople. Only the best for Mrs. M.––––.”

In addition to exploring her priceless collection of historic ceramics, you may pull a golden cord to witness a Pepper’s Ghost illusion, page through Mrs. M.––––– ’s personal scrapbook, or peer into her private office. To learn more, please visit www.chipstone.org or www.MrsMsCabinet.org.

Please contact Sarah Anne Carter, scarter@chipstone.org for more information. Images are available at www.MrsMsCabinet.org.

 

 

February Highlights at the Milwaukee Art Museum

 

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Awe-inspiring views of the  American landscape debut Feb.  26 in Nature and the American Vision

 Milwaukee, Wis.—February at the  Milwaukee Art Museum is a month of  adventure and discovery, with art and  programs featuring the American wilderness, the Haitian tropics, and  rare treasures in a new interactive  gallery.

In Nature and the American Vision: The Hudson River School, opening Feb. 26, the greatest American paintings of the 19th century make their Milwaukee debut. This landmark special exhibition features sweeping, epic landscapes of the America’s iconic natural wonders, and tells the stories of the people and places that shaped the nation.

February is Black History Month, and families are invited to explore the sights, sounds and voices of Haiti in the new Kohl’s Art Generation Lab: Haitian Art, which holds one of the most important collections of Haitian art since the massive earthquake that struck the area in 2010. Kids can create their own Haitian-inspired artwork in the Kohl’s Art Generation Studio, and on Saturdays, enjoy performances by community-based storyteller Carmen Quinlivan (Feb. 6), musicians Jahmes Findlayson & Dumah Saafir (Feb. 13), the dancers of Ko-thi Dance Company (Feb. 20) and festival music with Emily Laxner, Kantara Souffant and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music (Feb. 27).

Opening Feb. 20, The Collaboratory is a new and unique interactive gallery space co-created with local teen leaders in the Museum’s teen programs. This unexpected treasure trove of arms and armor and precious objects from around the world connects past and present in the Richard and Susan Pieper Family Education Gallery.

The Museum is also the perfect place to celebrate Valentine’s Day. The award-winning culinary team will host an intimate multi-course Valentine Dinner in Windhover Hall onSaturday, Feb. 13, while the Museum Store offers thoughtful and exquisitely-crafted gifts designed to make an impression, for him or for her.

Visitors can enjoy half-off admission every Saturday in February by presenting a receipt from Sendik’s Food Market. Kids 12 and under are always free.

A listing of additional  highlights is below. Events are free with Museum admission unless otherwise noted. For the full schedule, visit mam.org/calendar/events or call414/224-3200.

Get a dose of daily cute with Play Date with Art: The Color of  Love

It’s a toddler takeover during this monthly program for the Museum’s youngest visitors. Kids ages five and under sing along, play together, and make art in Windhover Hall.

Friday, Feb. 12, 10 a.m.-noon; Free

Experience a dance club sensation at MAM After Dark: Quiet  Clubbing
 Following January’s sold-out event, MAM After Dark encores  in February with Quiet Clubbing, an international  phenomenon. Attendees will dance the night away to the  beats of two battling DJ’s, heard only through headphones.  Advance tickets are encouraged. Friday, Feb. 19, 8 p.m. to midnight; $12 at the door/$10 in advance/Free for members

 

 

January Highlights at the Milwaukee Art Museum

EX7904_15_labeledLast chance to see acclaimed photography exhibition Larry Sultan: Here and Home, and get a first glimpse at Wisconsin’s most talented young artists

Milwaukee, Wis.—In January, the Milwaukee Art Museum is a colorful escape from winter, whether visitors enjoy exploring thousands of new artworks, dancing to hot Brazilian beats at MAM After Dark or making bright and playful prints at the Kohl’s Art Generation Open Studio.

Visitors won’t want to miss the final days of the critically-acclaimed Larry Sultan: Here and Home, which closes Sunday, Jan. 24. The first career retrospective of celebrated California photographer Larry Sultan, the exhibition features more than 200 images exploring the themes of home, family, belonging, and façade.

Scholastic ImageDiscover the next generation of young Wisconsin artists at the 2016 Scholastic Art Awards, opening Saturday, Jan. 30. This inspiring exhibition spotlights the creativity, skill and talent of 300 middle- and high-school art students from around the state, the winners of a national competition for excellence in the visual arts.  This year marks its 40th anniversary.

Visitors can take advantage of free and reduced admission this month, thanks to Sendik’s Food Market. During Sendik’s “Red Bag” Free Admission Weekend, Jan. 30‒31, bring in the retailer’s eye-catching “red bag” to get free admission or 50% off dual or family membership. Additionally, every Saturday in January and February is a Sendik’s Shopper Saturday, when a Sendik’s receipt is worth 50% off admission.  Kids 12 and under are always free!

Member Swap Day, a popular Milwaukee-wide event, returns Sunday, January 31, when members at eight of the city’s favorite museums can be a “member for a day” at any other participating museum, and enjoy free admission and discounts. Museums include Betty Brinn Children’s Museum, Charles Allis Art Museum, Grohmann Museum, Harley-Davidson Museum®, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee Public Museum, Pabst Mansion and Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum.

A listing of additional January highlights is below. Events are free with Museum admission unless otherwise noted. For more information, visit mam.org/calendar/events or call 414/224-3200.

 

After Hours

MAM After Dark: Rio Carnival

Friday, Jan. 15, 8 p.m.‒midnight

#MAMAfterDark

$12 at the door/$10 in advance/Free for Members

Celebrate the New Year with festive revelers, activities, and adornments, in the spirit of Rio Carnival! Learn salsa, cha-cha, and more with Milwaukee’s own Salsabrosa Dance Company while enjoying the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz sounds of De La Buena and 88Nine Radio Milwaukee’s own Marcus Doucette. Buy tickets and learn more at mam.org/afterdark.

 

Team Trivia

Friday, Jan. 28, 6‒8 p.m.

Back by popular demand! Shake off the winter brain freeze and meet your friends at the Milwaukee Art Museum for an evening of drinks, snacks, and live-hosted team trivia on a broad range of topics. Prizes will be awarded!

For Kids and Families

Kohl’s Art Generation Open Studio: A Splash of Color

Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m.‒4 p.m.

Dive into printmaking with inspiration from the prints by Sam Francis in the exhibition Sam Francis: Master Printmaker. Learn to monoprint in multicolored layers to create powerful paintings, a fun hands-on activity ideal for all ages.

 

Culinary Events

Art of Craft: Chocolate 101

Friday, Jan. 22, 6 p.m.

$18/$10 Members

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, discover the regional nuances of the chocolate bean with Milwaukee chocolatier Dan Bieser of Tabal Chocolate, who will guide you on a tour of locally made “bean to bar” chocolates.  To reserve a spot, call 414/224-3297.

 

Admissions and Tours

 

Admission to the Milwaukee Art Museum is $17 for adults, $15 for students (with ID), seniors 65 and over and active military. Admission for is always free for kids 12 and under, for Museum Members, and for Wisconsin K-12 teachers (with ID).

 

Drop-in tours are offered Tuesdays at noon, Saturdays at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.

 

About the Milwaukee Art Museum

 

Home to a rich collection of over 30,000 works of art, the Milwaukee Art Museum is located on the shores of Lake Michigan. Its campus includes the Santiago Calatrava–designed Quadracci Pavilion, annually showcasing three feature exhibitions, and the Eero Saarinen–designed Milwaukee County War Memorial Center and David Kahler-designed addition. The Museum recently reopened its Collection Galleries, debuting nearly 2,500 world-class works of art within dramatically transformed galleries and a new lakefront addition.

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